Hellish opening weekend for Tom Hanks’ ‘Inferno’

ErichSchwartzel

“Inferno” flamed out at the box office this weekend.

Tom Hanks’s latest turn in the Robert Langdon series was beat out by “Tyler Perry’s Boo! A Madea Halloween,” which surprised Hollywood by holding the No. 1 spot, taking in $16.7 million in the U.S. and Canada.

“Inferno” barely made a flicker, with an estimated $15 million opening, which put it in second place, well below expectations for the movie, which arrived with no new competition. Holdover “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back” came in third, at $9.6 million.

Like so many movies in today’s Hollywood, “Inferno,” released by Sony Corp.’s
SNE, -2.20%
Sony Pictures Entertainment, will have to lean hard on overseas returns to make up for lost ground in North America. Its global gross is approaching $150 million. The domestic opening of “Inferno” is well behind its predecessors in the series. “The Da Vinci Code” rode enthusiasm for the best-selling book to a $77 million opening in 2006, and “Angels & Demons” followed in 2009, with a $46 million debut.

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